Clothing, whether stored on a shelf, in a closet, drawer, storage bin, suitcase or other container can be time consuming to arrange on the shelf or in the container in a neat manner. And even if arranged in a neat manner, it is difficult to maintain the clothing in a neat state. Items of clothing stored using conventional containers, or means of arranging clothing in the containers, can over time result in the stored clothing becoming messy, especially through removal of one or more items of clothing from the remaining stored items of clothing. This creates the need to reorganize the clothing, or otherwise it becomes more time consuming to locate specific items of clothing, and also the clothing that may have become disorganized can wrinkle. This can contribute to the need to re-launder or dry clean clothes or spend time or money pressing or steaming clothing. With certain, more fragile items of clothing, conventional clothing arranging and storing technologies can even result in damage to the clothing.
Another important consideration is space. In many residences, there is a need to optimize the use of storage space. This can help avoid the need to rent storage space for storing surplus and off-season items, which is a growing trend particularly in urban areas where space is at a premium. This leads to the No, this additional cost of renting the storage space and the significant time investment in organizing items both at the residence and at the storage space, and the trips between the storage space and the residence.
Conventional methods of arranging and storing method can be improved on to better utilize and improve access to available storage space. There is a need for a system and method that enables individuals to make better use of their existing storage space.
Using prior art systems and methods, individuals who organize their closets with a significant number of items of clothing can find it difficult to find particular items. When they are locating specific items of clothing they may disturb the organization of the items. This creates a need to re-organize the items of clothing which is time consuming.
Also, there is a growing demand for the “hotel aesthetic” in residences, including in closets for example, i.e. the sleek, modern, uncluttered look. The prior art systems and methods do not provide a cost effective and easy to use system and method for achieving and maintaining these objectives.
Certain prior art clothing folding and packing technologies are known.
For example, UK Patent Application No. 2,452,245 discloses a clothing folding and packing apparatus that is designed to enable clothing to be folded down the middle of clothing.
Another folding technology is disclosed in EP 0 7656617 A2, entitled “Frames for Packaging Articles”.
U.S. patent Publication Ser. No. 12/440,356 discloses a relatively complex clothing folding and packing apparatus.
There is a need therefore for an improved method of folding clothing, and arranging and storing folded clothing that is easy to use and inexpensive to manufacture. There is also need for a low cost folding guide that enables clothing, once folded, to remain in a folded state.